12 Critical Money Moves That Everyone Should Make in Their 50s

Your 50s are a pivotal decade. You are near enough to retirement to feel its hot breath on your neck, and that can be a good thing.

It sharpens your focus at a time when you may still have 10 or 15 years of work left, so there’s time to fatten your savings and watch the money grow. At this point, too, you may have been doing a job or honing a skill for long enough to feel a delicious sense of mastery and to be at the peak of your earning power.

These peak earning years coincide with a peak chance for savings. If children finally are on their own, household expenses are lighter than they have been in decades. Rather than spend this freed-up money, sock away savings and pay off debt, which will bring you closer to the retirement you hoped for.